In 2011 the city had a population of 1,649,519.[6]
Montreal's metropolitan area
(CMA) (land area 4,259 square kilometres (1,644 sq mi)) had a population of 3,824,221[9]
and a population of 1,886,481 in the urban agglomeration, all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included.[18]
Current 2014 estimates of the CMA place the metropolitan area of Montreal at 4.1 million.[19]

French is the city's official language[20][21]
and is the language spoken at home, as Québécois French, by 56.9% of the population of the city, followed by English at 18.6% and 19.8% other languages (in the 2006 census).[22]
In the larger Montreal Census Metropolitan Area, 67.9% of the population speaks French at home, compared to 16.5% who speak English.[23]
Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada with 56% of the population able to speak both English and French.[24]
Montreal is the second largest primarily French-speaking city in the world, after Paris.[25][26][27][28]

In 2009, Montreal was named North America's leading host city for international association events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).[32]
In 2015, QS World University Rankings ranked Montreal the 8th-best place in the world to be a university student.[33]

Originally called
Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary",[14]
it is named after Mount Royal,[15]
the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. According to one theory, the name derives from mont Réal, as it was spelled in
Middle French
(Mont Royal
in modern French), but Cartier's 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, refers to "le mont Royal". Another argument, mentioned by the Government of Canada
on its web site concerning Canadian place names, is that the name was adopted as it is written nowadays because an early map of 1556 used the Italian name of the mountain, "Monte Real".[34]

Archaeological
evidence demonstrates that First Nations
native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago.[35]
By the year AD 1000, they had started to cultivate maize. Within a few hundred years, they had built
fortified
villages.[36]
The Saint Lawrence Iroquoians, a people distinct from the
Iroquois
nations of the Haudenosaunee
then based in present-day New York, established the village of Hochelaga
at the foot of Mount Royal two centuries before the French arrived. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at other locations in the valley since at least the 14th century.[37]
The French explorer Jacques Cartier
visited Hochelaga
on October 2, 1535, and estimated the population of the native people at Hochelaga to be "over a thousand people".[37]

Dauversiere
hired Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, then 30, to lead a group of colonists to build a mission on his new seigneury. The colonists left France in 1641 for Quebec, and arrived on the island the following year. On May 17, 1642, Ville-Marie was founded on the southern shore of Montreal island, with
Maisonneuve
as its first governor. The settlement included a chapel and a hospital, under the command of Jeanne Mance.[40]
By 1643, Ville-Marie had already been hit by Iroquois raids. In the spring of 1651, the Iroquois attacks became so frequent and so violent that Ville-Marie thought its end had come. Maisonneuve made all the settlers take refuge in the fort. By 1652, the colony at Montreal had been so reduced that he was forced to return to France to raise 100 volunteers to go with him to the colony the following year. If the effort had failed, Montreal was to be abandoned and the survivors re-located downriver to Quebec City. Before these 100 arrived in the fall of 1653, the population of Montreal was barely 50 people.

By 1685, Ville-Marie was home to some 600 colonists, most of them living in modest wooden houses. Ville-Marie became a centre for the
fur trade
and a base for further French exploration.[40]
In 1689, the English-allied Iroquois attacked Lachine
on the Island of Montreal, committing the worst massacre in the history of New France.[41]
By the early 18th century, the Sulpician Order
was established there. To encourage French settlement, they wanted the Mohawk to move away from the fur trading post at Ville-Marie. They had a mission village, known as Kahnewake, south of the St Lawrence River. The fathers persuaded some Mohawk to make a new settlement at their former hunting grounds north of the Ottawa River. This became
Kanesatake.[42]
In 1745 several Mohawk families moved upriver to create another settlement, known as Akwesasne. All three are now Mohawk reserves in Canada. The Canadian territory was ruled as a French colony until 1760, when it was surrendered to Great Britain after the
Seven Years' War.[43]

Ville-Marie was the name for the settlement that appeared in all official documents until 1705, when Montreal appeared for the first time, although people referred to the "Island of Montreal" long before then.[44]

Montreal was incorporated as a city in 1832.[45]
The opening of the Lachine Canal
permitted ships to bypass the unnavigable Lachine Rapids,[46]
while the construction of the Victoria Bridge
established Montreal as a major railway hub. The leaders of Montreal's business community had started to build their homes in the Golden Square Mile
from about 1850. By 1860, it was the largest municipality in British North America
and the undisputed economic and cultural centre of Canada.[47][48]

By 1951, Montreal's population had surpassed one million.[55]
The Saint Lawrence Seaway
opened in 1959, allowing vessels to bypass Montreal. In time this development led to the end of the city's economic dominance as businesses moved to other areas.[56]
During the 1960s there was continued growth, including the World's Fair known as Expo 67, and the construction of Canada's tallest skyscrapers, new expressways and the subway system known as the
Montreal Metro.

The 1970s ushered in a period of wide-ranging social and political changes, stemming largely from the concerns of the
French-speaking
majority about the conservation of their culture and language, given the traditional predominance of the English-Canadian
minority in the business arena.[57]
The October Crisis
and the 1976 election of the Parti Québécois, supporting sovereign status for Quebec, resulted in the departure of many businesses and people from the city.[58]
In 1976, Montreal was the host of the Olympics.[59]
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Montreal experienced a slower rate of economic growth than many other major Canadian cities.

Montreal was
merged
with the 27 surrounding municipalities on the Island of Montreal
on January 1, 2002, creating a unified city covering the entire island. There was great resistance from the suburbs to the merger, with the perception being that it was forced on the mostly English suburbs by the Parti Québécois. As expected, this move proved unpopular and several mergers were later rescinded. Several former municipalities, totaling 13% of the population of the island, voted to leave the unified city in separate
referendums
in June 2004. The demerger took place on January 1, 2006, leaving 15 municipalities on the island, including Montreal. De-merged municipalities remain affiliated with the city through an agglomeration council that collects taxes from them to pay for numerous shared services.[60]
The 2002 mergers were not the first in the city's history. Montreal annexed 27 other cities, towns, and villages beginning with Hochelaga
in 1883 with the last prior to 2002 being Pointe-aux-Trembles
in 1982.

The 21st century has brought with it a revival of the city's economic and cultural landscape. The construction of new residential skyscrapers, two super-hospitals (the
Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal
and McGill University Health Centre), the creation of the
Quartier des Spectacles, reconstruction of the
Turcot Interchange, reconfiguration of the Decarie and Dorval interchanges, gentrification of
Griffintown, subway line extensions and the purchase of new subway cars, the complete revitalization and expansion of
Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, the completion of
Quebec Autoroute 30, and the construction of a new toll bridge to Laval are helping Montreal continue to grow; Although politics and language issue still weigh heavily on any real economic growth considering the austerity measures that need to be put in place due to bad policies undertaken during the late 1970s and early 1980s and again in the mid 1990s to late 90s on a provincial level and decades of corruption from the Municipal level.

Summers are on the whole humid, during the day ranging from warm to hot, with a daily average of 26 to 27 °C (79 to 81 °F) in July; temperatures in excess of 30 °C (86 °F) occur often. Conversely, cool fronts can bring crisp, less humid and windy weather in the early and later parts of summer.

Winter usually brings cold, snowy, windy, and, at times, icy weather, with a daily average ranging from −9 to −10.5 °C (16 to 13 °F) in January. However, some winter days rise above freezing, allowing for rain on an average of 4 days in January and February each. Usually, snow covering some or all bare ground lasts on average from the first or second week of December until the last week of March.[66]
While the air temperature does not fall below −30 °C (−22 °F) every year,[67]
the wind chill
often makes the temperature feel this low to exposed skin.

Spring and fall are pleasantly mild but prone to drastic temperature changes; spring even more so than fall.[68]
Whereas April tends to be tranquil and sunny much of the time, in May there is a noticeable increase in humidity and thundery rainshowers. Late season heat waves as well as "Indian summers" are possible. Early and late season snow storms can occur in November and March, and more rarely in April. Montreal is generally snow free from April 15 to November 15.

The lowest temperature in Environment Canada's books was −37.8 °C (−36 °F) on January 15, 1957, and the highest temperature was 37.6 °C (100 °F) on August 1, 1975, both at
Dorval International Airport.[69]

Before modern weather record keeping (which dates back to 1871 for McGill),[70]
a minimum temperature almost 5 degrees lower was recorded at 7am on January 10, 1859, where it registered at −42 °C (−44 °F).[71]

Annual precipitation is around 980 mm (39 in), including an average of about 225 cm (89 in) of snowfall, which occurs from November through March. Thunderstorms are common in the period beginning in late spring through summer to early fall; additionally, tropical storms or their remnants can cause heavy rains and gales. Montreal averages 2,029 hours of sunshine annually, with summer being the sunniest season, though slightly wetter than the others in terms of total precipitation.[72]

Pavilions designed for the 1967 International and Universal Exposition, popularly known as
Expo 67, featured a wide range of architectural designs. Though most pavilions were temporary structures, several have become landmarks, including the
geodesic dome
U.S. Pavilion, now the Montreal Biosphere, and
Moshe Safdie's striking
Habitat 67
apartment complex.

The
Plateau
Mont-Royal borough has historically been a working-class francophone area. The largest neighbourhood is the Plateau
(not to be confused with the whole borough), which is currently undergoing considerable gentrification,[79]
and a 2001 study deemed it as Canada's most creative neighbourhood because artists comprise 8% of its labour force.[80]
The neighbourhood of Mile End
in the northwestern part of the borough, has historically been a very multicultural area of the city, and features two of Montreal's well-known bagel establishments,
St-Viateur Bagel
and Fairmount Bagel. The
McGill Ghetto
is in the extreme southwestern portion of the borough, its name being derived from the fact that it is home to thousands of McGill University
students and faculty members.

Architecture and cobbled streets in Old Montreal have been maintained or restored and are frequented by horse-drawn
calèches
carrying tourists. Old Montreal is accessible from the downtown core via the underground city
and is served by several STM
bus routes and metro stations, ferries to the South Shore and a network of bicycle paths.

The riverside area adjacent to Old Montreal is known as the Old Port. The Old Port was the former site of the worldwide
Port of Montreal, but its shipping operations have been moved further east to its current larger site, leaving the former location as a recreational and historical area maintained by
Parks Canada. The new
Port of Montreal
is now Canada's largest container port and the largest inland port on Earth.[81]

The mountain is home to two major cemeteries, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges (founded in 1854) and Mount Royal (1852).
Mount Royal Cemetery
is a 165 acres (67 ha) terraced cemetery on the north slope of Mount Royal in the borough of Outremont. Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery
is much larger, predominantly French-Canadian and officially Catholic.[83]
More than 900,000 people are buried there.[84]

Mount Royal Cemetery contains more than 162,000 graves and is the final resting place for a number of notable Canadians. It includes a veterans section with several soldiers who were awarded the
British Empire's highest military honour, the
Victoria Cross. In 1901 the Mount Royal Cemetery Company established the first crematorium in Canada.[85]

The first
cross
on the mountain was placed there in 1643 by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, the founder of the city, in fulfilment of a vow he made to
the Virgin Mary
when praying
to her to stop a disastrous flood.[82]
Today, the mountain is crowned by a 31.4 m-high (103 ft) illuminated cross, installed in 1924 by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste
and now owned by the city.[82]
It was converted to fibre-optic
light in 1992.[82]
The new system can turn the lights red, blue, or purple, the last of which is used as a sign of mourning between the death of the Pope and the election of the next.[86]

According to
Statistics Canada, at the
2006 Canadian census
the city had 1,620,693 inhabitants.[89]
A total of 3,635,571 lived in the Montreal Census Metropolitan Area
(CMA) at the same 2006 census, up from 3,451,027 at the 2001 census (within 2006 CMA boundaries), which means a population growth of +1.05% per year between 2001 and 2006.[90]
In the 2006 census, children under 14 years of age (621,695) constituted 17.1%, while inhabitants over 65 years of age (495,685) numbered 13.6% of the total population.[89]

People of
European ethnicities
formed the largest cluster of ethnic groups. The largest reported European ethnicities in the 2006 census were French
23%, Italians
10%, Irish
5%, English
4%, Scottish
3%, and Spanish
2%.[91]
Some 26% of the population of Montreal and 16.5% that of Greater Montreal, are members of a visible minority (non-white) group,[92]
up from 5.2% in 1981.[93]

According to a recently published report by the city, the population of the island is expected to number 1,991,200 by 2012, with 3.9 million in the Greater Montreal Area, an increase of 15.8% over 2001. However, in 2009, the Greater Montreal Area is estimated to number 3.86 million people, suggesting that the area surpass the four million threshold by 2012.[96]
According to StatsCan, by 2030, the Greater Montreal Area is expected to number 5,275,000 with 1,722,000 being visible minorities.[97]

In terms of mother language (first language learned), the 2006 census reported that in the
Greater Montreal Area, 66.5% spoke French as a first language, followed by English at 13.2%, while 0.8% spoke both as a first language.[98]
The remaining 22.5% of Montreal-area residents are allophones, speaking languages including
Italian
(3.5%), Arabic
(3.1%), Spanish (2.6%), Creole
(1.3%), Chinese
(1.2%), Greek
(1.2%), Portuguese
(0.8%), Romanian
(0.7%), Vietnamese
(0.7%), and Russian
(0.5%).[98]
In terms of additional languages spoken, a unique feature of Montreal among Canadian cities, noted by Statistics Canada, is the working knowledge of both French and English possessed by most of its residents.

The Greater Montreal Area is predominantly
Roman Catholic; however, weekly attendance in Quebec is among the lowest in Canada.[99]
Historically Montreal has been a centre of Catholicism in North America with its numerous seminaries and churches, including the Notre-Dame Basilica, the
Cathédrale Marie-Reine-du-Monde, and
Saint Joseph's Oratory. Some 65.8% of the total population is Christian,[100]
largely Roman Catholic
(52.8%), primarily due to descendants of original French settlers, and others of Italian and Irish origins. Protestants
which include Anglican,
United Church,
Lutheran, owing to British and German immigration, and other denominations number 5.90%, with a further 3.7% consisting mostly of
Orthodox Christians, fuelled by a large Greek population. There is also a number of Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox parishes.
Islam
is the largest non-Christian religious group, with 154,540 members,[101]
the second-largest concentration of Muslims in Canada at 9.6%. The Jewish
community in Montreal has a population of 90,780.[102]
In cities such as Côte Saint-Luc
and Hampstead, Jewish people constitute the majority, or a substantial part of the population. As recently as 1971 the
Jewish
community in Greater Montreal was as high as 109,480.[103]
Political and economic uncertainties led many to leave Montreal and the province of Quebec.[104]

Montreal has the second-largest economy of Canadian cities based on GDP[105]
and the largest in Quebec.[106]
The city is today an important centre of commerce, finance, industry, technology, culture, world affairs and is the headquarters of the Montreal Exchange.

Olympic Stadium
in Montreal, featuring the tallest leaning tower in the world at 175.5 metres (575.8 ft)

Casino de Montréal

Montreal was referred to as "Canada's Cultural Capital" by
Monocle
magazine.[30]
The city is Canada's centre for French language television productions, radio, theatre, film, multimedia, and print publishing. Montreal's many cultural communities have given it a distinct local culture.

Taken from the top of Le Monstre
at La Ronde amusement park. The Goliath
is the red, yellow and blue ride to the north

Montreal was the host of the
1976 Summer Olympic Games. The stadium cost $1.5 billion;[157]
with interest that figure ballooned to nearly $3 billion, and was only paid off in December 2006.[158]
Montreal also hosted the first ever World Outgames
in the summer of 2006, attracting over 16,000 participants engaged in 35 sporting activities.

Montreal was the host city for the 17th unicycling world championship and convention (UNICON) in August 2014.

The city council is a democratically elected institution and is the final decision-making authority in the city, although much power is centralized in the executive committee. The Council consists of 65 members from all
boroughs.[164]
The Council has jurisdiction over many matters, including public security, agreements with other governments, subsidy programs, the
environment,
urban planning, and a three-year capital expenditure program. The Council is required to supervise, standardize or approve certain decisions made by the
borough
councils.

Reporting directly to the Council, the executive committee exercises decision-making powers similar to those of the cabinet in a
parliamentary system
and is responsible for preparing various documents including budgets
and by-laws, submitted to the Council for approval. The decision-making powers of the executive committee cover, in particular, the awarding of contracts or
grants, the management of
human
and financial
resources, supplies and buildings. It may also be assigned further powers by the City Council.

Standing committees are the prime instruments for public consultation. They are responsible for the public study of pending matters and for making the appropriate recommendations to the council. They also review the annual budget forecasts for departments under their jurisdiction. A public notice of meeting is published in both French and English daily newspapers at least seven days before each meeting. All meetings include a public question period. The standing committees, of which there are seven, have terms lasting two years. In addition, the City Council may decide to create special committees at any time. Each standing committee is made up of seven to nine members, including a chairman and a vice-chairman. The members are all elected municipal officers, with the exception of a representative of the government of
Quebec
on the public security committee.

The city is only one component of the larger
Communauté Métropolitaine de Montréal
(English: Montreal Metropolitan Community or MMC), which is in charge of planning, coordinating, and financing economic development, public transportation, garbage collection and waste management, etc., across the metropolitan area. The president of the CMM is the mayor of Montreal. The CMM covers 4,360 square kilometres (1,680 sq mi), with 3.6 million inhabitants in 2006.[165]

Montreal is the seat of the
judicial district
of Montreal, which includes the City and the other communities on the island.[166]

With four universities, seven other degree-awarding institutions, and 12
CEGEPs
in an 8-kilometre (5.0 mi) radius, Montreal has the highest concentration of post-secondary students of all major cities in North America (4.38 students per 100 residents, followed by Boston at 4.37 students per 100 residents).[167]

Université de Montréal
(UdeM) is the second largest research university in Canada and ranked as one of the top universities in Canada. Two separate institutions are affiliated to the university: the École Polytechnique de Montréal
(School of Engineering) and HEC Montréal
(School of Business). HEC Montreal was founded in 1907 and is considered as one of the best business schools in Canada.[citation needed]

McGill University
is one of Canada's leading post-secondary institutions, and widely regarded as a world-class institution. In 2014, McGill was ranked as the top University in Canada for the ninth consecutive year by Macleans,[168]
and as the best University in Canada; 21st best University in the world, by the QS World University Rankings.[169]

Like many major cities, Montreal has a problem with
vehicular
traffic congestion, especially from cities in the west island such as Pointe-Claire
and Beaconsfield, and off-island suburbs such as
Laval
on Île Jésus, and
Longueuil
on the south shore. The width of the Saint Lawrence River
has made the construction of fixed links to the south shore expensive and difficult. There are only four road bridges along with one road tunnel, two railway bridges, and a metro
line. The far narrower Rivière des Prairies, separating Montreal from Laval, is spanned by eight road bridges (six to
Laval
and two directly to the north shore) and a
metro
line.

The island of Montreal is a hub for the Quebec
Autoroute
system, and is served by Quebec Autoroutes A-10
(known as the Bonaventure Expressway on the island of Montreal), A-15
(aka the Decarie Expressway south of the A-40 and the Laurentian Autoroute to the north of it), A-13
(aka Chomedey Autoroute), A-20,
A-25,
A-40
(part of the Trans-Canada Highway
system, and known as "The Metropolitan" or simply "The Met" in its elevated mid-town section), A-520, and
A-720
(aka the Ville-Marie Autoroute). Many of these Autoroutes are frequently congested at rush hour.[177]
However, in recent years, the government has acknowledged this problem and is working on long-term solutions to alleviate the congestion. One such example is the extension of Quebec Autoroute 30
on Montreal's south shore, which will serve as a
bypass.[178]

Public local transport is served by a network of buses, subways, and commuter trains that extend across and off the island. The subway and bus system are operated by the
Société de transport de Montréal
(STM). The STM bus network
consists of 197 daytime and 20 nighttime routes. STM bus routes serve 1,347,900 passengers on an average weekday in 2010.[179]
It also provides adapted transport and wheelchair-accessible buses.[180]
The STM won the award of Outstanding Public Transit System in North America by the APTA in 2010. It was the first time a Canadian company won this prize.

The
Metro
was inaugurated in 1966 and has 68 stations on four lines.[181]
It is Canada's busiest subway system in total daily passenger usage, serving 1,050,800 passengers on an average weekday (as of Q1 2010).[179]
Each station was designed by different architects with individual themes and features original artwork, and the trains run on rubber tires, making the system quieter than most.[182]
The project was initiated by Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau, who later brought the Summer Olympic Games to Montreal in 1976. The metro system has long had a station on the South Shore in
Longueuil, and has recently been extended to the city of
Laval, north of Montreal, with three new stations.[183]

Airlines servicing Trudeau offer flights to Europe, the United States, Western Asia, the Middle East, Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Mexico and other destinations within Canada and it contains the largest duty-free shop in North America.[198]

Jump up
^It is most common to omit the acute accent in English-language usage (Montreal), unless using a proper name where the context requires the use of the accent (e.g., Université de Montréal,
Le Journal de Montréal, as compared to the
Montreal Gazette), and to keep the accent in French-language usage (Montréal). This is also the approach favoured by
The Canadian Press Style Book
(ISBN 0-920009-32-8, at p. 234) and
The Globe and Mail Style Book
(ISBN 0-7710-5685-0, at p. 249). According to
The Canadian Style
(ISBN 1-55002-276-8, at pp. 263–4), the official style guide of the government of Canada, the name of the city is to be written with an accent in all government materials.

Jump up
^Kinshasa and Abidjan are sometimes said to rank ahead of Montreal as francophone cities, since they have larger populations and are in countries with French as the sole official language. However, French is uncommon as a mother tongue there. According to Ethnologue, there were 17,500 mother-tongue speakers of French in the Ivory Coast as of 1988.
[1]
Approximately 10% of the population of Congo-Kinshasa knows French to some extent. [2]